CME Group to launch BTC, ETH reference rates aimed at Asia’s investors
CME reported nearly half of its crypto volume year to date came from non-U.S. trading hours and around 11% from the Asia Pacific region. Derivatives marketplace CME Group is launching Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) reference rates for the Asia Pacific region, in another sign of growing institutional interest in crypto from Asia. On Aug. 16, derivatives marketplace CME Group said it’s partnered with crypto indices provider CF Benchmarks and on Sept. 11 to launch the two Asia Pacific-focused crypto reference rates. Reference rates are used as a credible source of a cryptocurrency’s price and are used — in CME’s case — to price settlements of crypto futures contracts. CME Group said from Sept. 11, Asia-based crypto institutions and investors will get two reference rates that will track BTC and ETH, which will be published once a day at 4 pm Hong Kong time. CME Group has existing reference rates for the two cryptocurrencies, but they are published at times more suitable to investors in...